Donatello Birch | D7M | 1st Hunger Games | WIP

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Donatello Birch
District Seven
Sixteen
First Hunger Games Tribute
Gavin Leatherwood

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He never knew his actual parents.

Donnie was a boy who had been passed around between relatives because each one of them had been too busy to look after him at one point or the other.

Even at a young age, he could remember spending more time alone that he actually wanted too. He never knew the reasons until he got older, but then it was too late to say something, at least that is what he thought.

He was non-confrontational, mostly because he never wanted to upset the next family member that he had to stay with.

His only saving grace was that each family member realized quickly that taking care of Donnie was no easy task, and with whatever was going on in seven, he was passed over to the next family member that was thought to be less involved in the political side of things.

---

Donnie found ways to cope with the high amounts of loneliness, mostly getting lost in the forests of district seven. He was known around the district as the free-spirited child who was filled with nothing but blind faith and good intentions.

He was soft and sweet to most of the people in the district, because the last thing that he wanted was to piss someone off that he didn’t know.

He was careful when it came to relationships with people, and sometimes it took him a while to warm up to people, because every time he did, he was shuffled like a deck of cards.

His ability to trust was shattered before he could even deal the first hand.

So he stuck to the forest, because that was the one place that he felt like he could escape too.

A home that didn’t have to have his heart in it.

---

Until he met Aspen.

That’s when things started to change for him.

A boy who found him in the forest, his feet muddled in the dirt and mud of the rainy season. He approached Donnie, and in their youth, they found a way to bond over the fact that they were forgotten about by the people they loved.

It wasn’t easy at first.

It would never be easy for them if they were being honest with each other.

Whatever was going on, they chose to try to stay out of it, except Aspen did have inside knowledge of what exactly was happening. Donnie though chose to ignore the news.

Ignorance was bliss after all.

---

Eventually, Donnie had found his way into Aspen’s home. A home that he felt like he had no business being in because of the regality of it. Aspen’s father had been the mayor of the district, or at least, that is what Donnie figured. Most houses of seven had been built by bare hands, but Donnie could tell that this one was different. There weren’t many imperfections, and that meant that professionals had to be brought it.

The truth was always in the little details.

At first, he only came in the house to simply wash up and maybe see if he could get some food from Aspen.

However, some food turned into dinner, and dinner turned into meeting the parents, both of who seemed to be kind, and present in Aspen’s life, a notion that Donnie had never known.

He was jealous, but he would never act on that, because Aspen was the first boy to understand the amount of loneliness that Donnie felt day to day. He had his parents, but behind closed doors, Aspen confided him in that they weren’t around enough.

So Donnie and Aspen spent more time together, laying in bed together as they gazed out windows of the house, trying to figure out what was going to be the outcome of everything the adults had been working for.

---

A teenage love story is what they called it, and Donnie couldn’t agree more. It took some time, but their cold feet went hot as soon as they both realized that there had been feelings for each other.

Donnie had stopped going to his actual home, and unofficially moved into Aspen’s at this point, they wouldn’t know when they would be able to ask his parents if it would be alright, but they didn’t waste time on the notion that it would be a no.

They just always thought it would be a yes.

They knew things about each other that they were sure that their families did not. Donnie loved to climb trees because the fear of falling motivated him to get to the top. Aspen loved pick random berries and eat them from time to time because he wanted to find out what would happen as they slid down his throat.

They were risk takers, through and through.

Young and naïve.

But full of love for each other.

And they both knew that Aspen’s parents loved Aspen as well.

So they thought there wouldn’t be a problem.

---

One night, Donnie couldn’t sleep, even with his arm entwined over Aspen’s taut body, the warmth wasn’t enough for him to pass out. So he woke up and decided to walk around the house at night. He heard noises coming from one part of the house, while the rest of it was dark. He snuck around, peering his ear into business that probably wasn’t his to know.

He heard Aspen’s father talk about the rebellion, and how he was worried about the aftermath. He wasn’t sure what was going to happen to them, and as Donnie listened in the shadows, he couldn’t help but feel like something bad was coming this way.

He wanted to run like he always did when he felt something bad was coming his way.

However, he wouldn’t do it right away, instead, he walked back into Aspen’s room and crawled his way back into bed. He pulled Aspen close to him, and they kissed in the darkness that Donnie had known so well.

---

The next day, Aspen and Donnie had wandered out of the room they shared for the time being, and they had been both embraced by Aspen’s parents.

There wasn’t any question to why Donnie had been there, and maybe that was a good thing. Maybe they both knew that Donnie had just belonged here.

Aspen had been nervous about asking his parents if this was okay, but after a couple minutes of hem hawing, he found his voice, and his parents didn’t even bat an eyelash.

”Hes welcomed to stay here as long as he wishes.” his father smiled at both of them, and for the first time in a long time, Donnie felt his face flush red and burn up. The tears pouring down his face as he realized that he had found a home that he wanted to be a part of.

A house where his heart could finally live.

---

Weeks had passed and Donnie had found ways to cut ties with most of his family. It did help that most of them had seemed to disappear from the face of the planet, but the ones that hadn’t, Donnie made sure to have no contact with them.

After all, they weren’t his family anymore.

He had found what he had been looking for all this time.

And as he walked through the district square, he stopped at a stall for a moment to gander at what they had to offer. It wasn’t much since the end of the rebellion, something that Donnie had barely found out about due to keeping his head down and out of the commotion.

As he picked up a necklace with a miniature glass jar filled with an Aspen branch, he smiled and grasped it in his rough hands.

As he was about to ask for the attendant, he heard the sounds of footsteps growing closer to him. Before he could turn around, he had been forced onto the ground, the necklace still cupped in his hand as the people had held him down and cuffed him.

”Target Acquired.” they announced as they dragged Donnie away from the stall.

”What is going on? Where are we going? What did I do?” all left from Donnie’s mouth, but the soldiers wasted no time in speaking to him. They didn’t care what Donnie had to say after all. As they walked him to the train, they threw him into an empty car with a mattress on the floor and simply told him to get ready for a long ride.

As he stood up from where he was, he moved towards the car door and put his ear to the cold metal. All he could hear was the sound of the train engine and a couple muffled words.

”Target.”

”Donatello”

That’s when Donnie took a step back and realized that he still had the necklace in his hand. He draped it around his neck as he sat on the bed and thought about what target and his name meant in the same sentence.

No one would tell him anything.

Not a single soul.

[ryan]

L△LIA hewwo, he ready

[L△LIA]

This poor bb just can't catch a break, can he? ;-; This is such a sweet backstory, I love how pure he is and his confusion at the end especially kills me. Big feels all around!

ACCEPTED!